Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As Sam got better the need to sleep gradually lifted. The need to rest however did not, he was still out of the field till he was back to firing on all cylinders. That didn’t stop him from beating his own or teammates’ high scores on any game he could get his hands on in the meantime. On occasion someone may keep him company. Danny and Luke usually preferred to have a movie or sports game, respectively, playing while each did their own thing and just enjoyed company. Ava tried a few times to get Sam to do some schoolwork but quickly ended her quest after Sam’s complaining of headaches was earnest over the usual excuse.

Always one to see things through, Peter continued returning to the helicarrier aside from mission-related visits. His watchfulness of each hero diminished as their symptoms waned, though with a slight delay. Only after seeing true improvement would he let up. With how severe Sam’s symptoms got, a part of Peter was always worried. Did his fever come back? Did his STML delve into full amnesia? Did he do something stupid in another delirium fit? Was his immune system weak enough to… There were no depths of paranoia Spidey’s mind couldn’t spiral into.

Peter rattled a knock on Sam’s door and turned his head, eyes unfocused as he listened for an invitation. Even if he knew Sam’s identity, even if he knew Sam didn’t have someone with him, even if he was 90% sure he could walk right in inconsequentially, he still waited. As a hero, the worst- ok not the worst but a very annoying thing was having someone knock then just open the door when you were half way through getting in and out of your suit. Peter remembered vividly the moment, ironically during his time being sick, that he had awkwardly hopped and slammed the door in May’s face with his body. Generally as a teenager, well, it’s not hard to interpret the struggle there.

The lock pad gave a beep and turned green as it displayed it was now open for free access. Any call Sam might have given as response would have been blocked by the soundproof walls. Not all heroes chose to have such addition to their personal quarters, however with anything from waking up screaming from nightmares to loud repetitive gaming music, Sam having a soundproof room was necessary. Nova glances at the door when it opens, doing a double take when his brain didn’t actually register what it saw the first time.

“ ‘Sup.” His voice was slightly higher pitched and nasally from still being sick albeit much better than a few days ago. His speech was backed with music coming from his phone lain next to him and general sound effects from the game he currently played. The game was lowered to compensate for his phone’s weaker speakers but still loud enough to be heard. The song currently playing was upbeat and light. Peter thought he recognized some of the lyrics but then the song and melody would totally derail, it must be a mashup of sorts [1].

“ ‘Sup wit’ch you?” Peter said as he stepped out of the doorway to let it close behind him.

Sam made vague gestures with one had to the game in front of him. “Nyeh.”

“Ah, yes, ‘nyeh’ my favourite game.”

Sam shook his head with laughter flitting through his speech, “Shut up Parker. Should I swap to two player?”

Having been given an invitation to stay, Peter walked over and sat next to Sam with his legs tucked to his left. “No way, dude! You gotta push that score!”

Sam shifted and leant forward gaining enthusiasm about his playing. As he went along, Peter would comment ideas and give unsolicited advice for puzzles and quests. Other than that, they talked over the supporting background noise. They made jokes and spouted light hearted insults with their talk staying mostly game related.

When Sam won the level, instead of his usual droned ‘finally’ or hollered ‘hell yeah!’, he cheered a staccatoed jumble of syllables Peter didn’t recognize. Scrunching his nose and smiling, Peter lightly laughed out, “Bah-ha-ka-wha[2]?”

Without looking, Sam waved a hand off at Peter and said, “it’s from a show.”

From there the conversation slid into cartoons. Nostalgic ones long ended, newer ones for older audiences, programs cancelled too early, types of animation preferences, characters sharing a voice actor, wherever their words decided to take them. Sam sets off moving to the next level and the two wait as it loads. When the bar doesn’t seem to be moving any level of swift, Sam lets his attention fade else ware. Moving his mouth silently and nodding his head to the general tempo Nova closes his eyes and immerses himself in the guitar riffs and lyrics. He turned to pretend sing at Peter but pauses and loses his spirit when he sees the other boys scrunched up nose.

“No like?” he didn’t care if Peter didn’t like some of his music but he didn’t want to play music Peter wouldn’t enjoy.

Understanding where Sam’s train of thought came from Peter opens his expression and says back, “Nah, it’s good I just don’t recognize it[3].”

“What do you listen to?”

“What are you streaming on?”

“Dotify.”

“Perfect,” Peter says smiling and takes Sam’s phone in hand, password having been eavesdropped and memorized. Sam glares at him making Peter roll his eyes. “Dude I won’t buy anything.”

Sam shrugs to dispel the tension. “Good, then play whatever you want, but I retain the right to skip it.” He mimics a court judge in his last phrase.

“Fair.”

Peter typed half a title into the search bar before options popped up and then set a song he liked to ‘play next’. The game starts up as Peter sets off the new arrangement. When Sam’s song ends Peter’s starts. The melody is slow and gentle, a drastic difference from the previous genre. Sam looks at Peter skeptically. Peter was dorky, but Nova didn’t expect him to listen to this kind of music. Really Parker?

Smiling knowingly Peter holds a hand up towards Sam and says, “Just wait.”

There weren’t any words but it wasn’t old fashioned or dubstep. An oddly smooth blend of authentic instruments and artificially constructed sounds. The melody picks up as a synthetically high voice says a few words a few times over spaced out by each discernable stanza of notes. Familiar suspense builds in the rhythm before the ‘beat drops’ and the whole song picks up in intensity. When the real body of the music came out Sam smiled and nodded his head to the new beat[4]. The song accents their hang out for another minute or so.

“Do you only listen to classical?” Sam asked genuinely.

“Nah, nah, lemme think of one you might like.” Peter says looking down and browsing his mental library.

“After another of mine.”

“Totally.”

Spidey waited till his song ended before going to add another to play next so that one of Sam’s could play in between. The song from Sam’s library was an upbeat pop. Peter thought it sounded like the same singer from when he walked in[5]. When his own song came on, Sam’s posture jerked minutely in surprise when rapping started over the upbeat EDM backing. Peter lip synced to the lyrics and as Sam paid a bit more attention further surprise when as peter continued to fau sing when the lyrics were vulgar[6].

Peter broke his small performance when he heard Sam snicker. “What?”

“Nothing.” Sam pursed his lips to try and hide his smile.

“What?!” Peter slightly laughed through his speech.

“You’re swearing.” Sam let a smile bloom across his face.

Peter sits straighter as he states, matter-of-factly, “No, I’m imitating. There’s a difference.”

“Sure, webhead. Whatever you say,” Sam drug out sarcastically, nodding as he turned back to the screen.

Song after song they continued to go back and forth, the genre changing frequently since Sam had his whole diverse library on shuffle. They were both slightly insecure about playing less ‘cool’ songs like more emotional, or chick pop, or acapella. Then, when Peter spouted surprised recognition of a nice artist, Sam responded enthusiastically and they both freely played whatever they felt and let play whatever came on.

On occasion Sam would add something Peter had set to play to his library or Peter would take a picture on his own phone of Sam’s screen to get the artist and title of something he liked. When older music would come on there was always a look shared of them both knowing it and ending in a major jam session to the nostalgic tune. They’d solely go back and forth playing music as they pleased but on occasion Sam would announce when whatever comes on he thinks Peter will really like. Peter agreed most times but only once did he truly get hooked.

Fast repetitive piano cords initiated the start of another song. “Oh! Oh this- mmmhmhmhm this[7].”

“What?”

“Just listen,” Sam giggled out.

There were a variety of voices with periodic moments of blunt dialogue over the music breaking up the parts sung. Not many songs have this style of construction except for… “Musical?”

Sam talks over the music as the first chorus plays, “yeah I don’t have the whole show just a few bops and funny ones. Now shh.” It was true he didn’t have the whole show, but he had most of the songs. He just didn’t want webs thinking he was a theatre nerd.

Spidey laughed at the sharp, sporadic comments the boy next to him would give once and a while over different lyrics, scenes, and melody swells. The song itself was plenty amusing with dirty jokes and characters teasing one another. Just the content was funny. The moment became more about sharing their interests and being with each other than the actual game. As the screen flashed with all the vibrant pixels, neither noticed as Sam beat one level after another.

Chapter Text

Peter felt like he was in a tv show with mainstream songs as the soundtrack or when a radio song comes over the air to give ambience to a scene. Character reuniting with family, saving a life, two lovers getting together, or getting hot and heavy… that’s what most of the scenes were: accenting two lovers. Peter looks at Sam out of the corner of his eye. Spidey didn’t live in a tv show, but if he did this would be a perfect moment for just the right song to play and a soft moment to happen.

When else would he ever get the chance to have music accent a situation without being obvious or awkward or cheesy? Never, that’s when. Peter knew he had one chance to make something happen. ‘TV isn’t real and shouldn’t be seen as an accurate example of life blah blah,’ this rare opportunity would literally never come otherwise, he had to take it.

Peter grabs Sam’s phone as he says, “Uh there’s a song I want you to hear,” he sets the device down before awkwardly stumbling verbally and physically, “I gotta… do a… thing. I’ll be back just, uh just listen-” Peter pauses in in the doorway to say, “...to the lyrics.”

Sam raises a brow at Peters tone. After working together and seeing Spidey’s poor execution of spontaneous coverups when needing to go “hero mode” he could detect the lie in his statement instantly. Nova chose to let Pete get away with whatever he was trying to hide, he probably just had to do some hygiene thing and was too embarrassed to say. Peter was awkward like that.

Out in the hall Peter stood in front of the closed door, hands shaking. The tremors turned into full flaps as he shook his hands out from the adrenalin as though to dry them. He paced back and forth in the small corridor. He took terse breaths in attempt to calm his racing heart. Behind that door Sam was listening to what could only be described as a confession. It put what Peter never had the courage to say out in the open. No more putting it off. All waiting had ever got him was loss. Not this time.

The silence between songs is what grabs Sam’s attention away from the game and his own confused thoughts. The music starts with light cords, it’s pretty. He unintentionally focuses on lyrics more than he had with the other songs after Peter was all weird and said something about the lyrics. An alto voice starts with words about being nervous, then confessing how she feels, then saying how she’ll never say it. The chorus consists of longing wishes about ‘all the things I wish I could tell you’ and aching about wanting someone so bad. The final chorus line ties everything together with a line about ‘if I could say what I wanted to’ with super longing, then ending the entire song on how she’d never say it[1].

Thinking to himself, Sam may miss stuff but Pete was not a fine example of subtle. He said he wanted to share a song. Not ‘music’ not ‘some songs’, a song. This song. Peter specifically told Sam to listen. Did…. Was this what Peter had going through his head? Did he have feelin-

“Ugh, I’m delirious again.” But… his fever broke days ago.

“ ‘When things seem too good to be true, they usually are’,” Sam looked to the door, “ You said that.[2]” He paused before mumbling to himself absentmindedly, “but ‘usually’ isn’t ‘always’...”

The world paused before speeding back up, and then going even faster. Sam’s heart was doing cartwheels. Peter liked him… That must be it! What else could that song being played mean with how nervous he was? Sam smiled subtly despite his ship crashing on the screen in front of him. Nova could care less about the game score, reality was far more thrilling to the young hero. He bit his knuckle shyly with a soft mix of bliss and glee. His competitive nature -especially with Peter- swam under the joy making him smirk over his fist.

“Two can play at this game.” Sam goes through his phone and sets a few songs up to play.

Peter walks back into the room to hear… not his song playing. In fact, the room was silent, Sam wasn’t playing any music. Did Sam switch it off soon as he left? Or did he just time it well enough to not need to humiliate himself by being there while the music was going? Did he accidentally hit play instead of play next?

“So… what’d you think?” Peter asked tentatively as he forced himself to sit back down.

Sam didn’t make eye contact, just continued playing the game, as he said, “good, nice chords.”

Peter’s heart sunk. That was too vague to be sure. He sat back down to continue keeping Sam company.

“My turn.”

Sam’s comment caught Peter of guard. “We were listening to your music already.”

“That was playing music, these are songs I want you to hear.” Sam’s voice got quieter as he spoke, unable to meet the other boy’s eyes: shy and stressed.

“Song- z ?” As in, more than one?

Sam just nodded. Peter notices Sam dies but is too anxious to tease or even remark in any way. The semi-awkward silence is slightly remedied by Sam starting the music.

Right off the bat, the first words are saying ‘you need to explain more’ if you actually have feelings for me and tell me why. As the second verse plays, Sam silently mumbles the words, knowing them well. The singer went on about saying all the things they want a lover to do to treat them right, not in a naughty-sexy way, rather being adored and spoiled as a partner.

When the lyrics changed to clearly having a girl as the recipient to the words, Sam’s mimicking would gain confidence. The wrong pronoun was something he could hide his earnest communication behind. The final words were asking ‘how do you love me?’[3].

Tension crept into the room as the silence between songs dragged out. Melodic synthesizer flowed over the mood and settled the mood a bit. The song initially goes about forgetting ‘her’, but then starts talking about wanting to take care of the song’s recipient. The words go further into metaphors about not wanting to be just friends.

Next to him, Sam was hyper aware of Peter looking out of corner of his eye and decides to purposefully lip-sync the longing words. As the upbeat chorus kicks off, Sam lets his general fondness of the music attempt to ease his anticipation and adrenalin of the whole situation by just getting into the groove of the music. The lyrics continue with messages of ‘c’mon just let me have you’. Sam would occasionally drop his slowly growing smile when his attention would genuinely shift to the screen in front of him.

As the last stanza plays out, Nova risked turning his head to face the boy next to him as much as he dared, fear still dancing through his veins, while mimicking the last words of saying about wanting to earnestly care for the song’s recipient[4].

When the second silence dripped over the room, Peter tensed. He knew Sam wanted to show more than one song, but how many? Two? Five? Ten? His train of thought is derailed by acoustic chords. The vocals are confident, starting off with ‘hey your current girlfriend sucks, here’s why I’m better’ with different reasons over and over again. She offers a rebuttal on how the ‘girlfriend’ is better than her but then doubles down going all out about how herself and the listener are perfect for eachother. 

In the second verse, when a lyric comes over that is just too accurate Sam risks a nudge, point, and fully making eye contact with a goofy smile; teasing Peter about his tendency to hide his problems and bottle them up but everyone being able to call bullshit anyway. Peter matches the playful energy and giggles at the true trait he has. When he turned to tease, Sam noticed the change, Peter was blushing and didn’t seem super uncomfortable. The cosmic hero chances throwing in some body language as the lyrics went on. 

After a classy acoustic guitar solo the singer goes about knowing what songs the other likes, the amusingly topical line gives Sam the confidence to fully look over to the boy on his left. For a moment he looks back at the game but he’s drawn back to blue eyes. The bridge of the music is a greatly softened version of the chorus. Confirming his intentions, this is the verse when Sam turns to bodily face Peter showing that he’s saying those words to Peter. His head is down for the start as he slowly lifts his head to look at one another. Getting lost in the moment, Nova leans more and more into the lyrics and communicating their meaning[5].

And just like in a movie, as the song swelled, their lips met soft. Sam slowly leans into the taller boy more and more. The gaming controller slips from his hand as his fingers go slack to gently cup both sides of Peter’s face. 

Peter sighed gently through his nose. Sam suddenly jerks back and covers his face. “Wait! No, I'm gonna get you sick!” His inability to mimic the action spurring the realization.

“Sam, if you were gonna get me sick it would have happened already. I’ve been hanging out with you everyday for over a week.”

“Shut up and kiss me again,” Sam said as he rolled his eyes.

“Can do,” Peter smiled as his eyes closed and their lips met again.

Chapter Text

When a familiar voice breaks their affection Peter laughs at the looping song. “Did you make a playlist just to play for me?”

“…maybe.” The shy response making both boys smile and blush.

“You started it!”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Shut up.” Another playful shove before he yawns deeply.

Peter takes the discarded controller and shuts down the neglected gaming system. He stands and walks toward the door. Spidey turns when he hears Sam scoff and hold his hands out in disbelief. They have a moment and kiss and then Peters just gonna walk away?! Still looking at the sick boy, Peter reaches and uses the main entrance control panel to turn off the lights, the room lit by a few emergency strips. Sam drops his hand and makes a silent, drawn out ‘oh’.

With a soft smile and tilt of his head, “do you want me to stay till you fall asleep?” something Peter had done many times when Sam was having delirium. 

Head tilting down slightly but maintaining eye contact, “will you stay after that?”

Peter laughs softly. “Ab-” he pulls back the sheets “-so-” sits down on the bed “-lutely” and shimmies under to lay down. Peter pulls Sam close and he nuzzles into his caretaker.

“Heh dejà vu.”

“Hmm?” Sam pulls his head back to see the other’s face.

“Nothing.” Peter smiles and shakes his head

“No, what?” laughter flits through Sam’s question.

“On one of the first nights when your fever was really bad you broke down. Pulled me to lay down with you like this. At least now you’re not crying.”

“I don’t remember any of this.”

“You don’t remember a lot of things.”

“Wel- yeah bu- that’s not my point!”

“Hey I wouldn’t believe it either if I wasn’t there listening to you all-” Peter imitates Sam’s sobbed speech “-’are they just for kids? Adults can have graham crackers too!’ ”

“Wha-ha-hat?!” Laughter breaks up the sick boy’s speech.

Wrapping an arm around Sam’s waist, Peter relays the tales of the first few days. He had cuddled Sam to sleep twice more on top of the first major breakdown. The sick boy would laugh at the ridiculous things Peter told him he did and said and snuggled back into Spidey’s hold. Semi-unconcously, as Peter rambled he carded his fingers through raven hair. With nothing to do but get better, there’d been no need to spike it up how Sam usually wore it making it unusually soft. The rambling and laughter faded into a gentle quiet as both slowly fell asleep. Before Peter’s brain shut off completely he jerked a bit and gasped waking himself up.

“What?”

“Hang on.”

Over exaggerating his symptoms Sam whined, “you said you’d stay.” 

“I-” he leant over to the bedside table “-am. I’m just-” he grabs his phone “-letting aunt May know where I'm at.”

“And where are you?” When Peter gives him the usual ‘how are you so stupid’ look, Sam rolls his eyes and continues, “what’s your cover story?” Since Peter couldn't just say ‘oh I’m sleeping on the helicarrier with Nova cause I got him sick and we just kissed’.

“Your place.”

Sam looked down in realization. Were his hands not snug around Spidey one would have slapped his own forehead. “Oh.”

“What did you think I’ve been saying this whole time?”

“Wasn’t really thinking about it.”

Peter being away from home every day when he is hiding his identity from someone he lives with? All Sam noted was that Peter was always there. For the majority of the time when Peter’s situation was a juggled balancing act, Sam was just too sick to register what could be going on behind the scenes of Pete’s gentle care. He was only getting cared for be cause he was sick… 

Sam had a slightly sad look on his face. Guessing at what could be going through the other hero’s head, Peter spoke up, “Hey, you don’t have to be sick or crying for me to want to hold you.”

“You’re such a sap.” Sam laughed, shaken from his worry that the affection would end once he got better.

“Would you rather me be a jerk?”

“No, sappy is good.” He paused before continuing much quieter, “It’s one of my favourite things about you, actually.”

“All of you is my favourite thing.”

Sam laughed as he spoke, “That didn’t make sense.” He feels Peter take in a breath to retort but cuts him off before he can get a word out. “but I know what you mean.”

“Good.” Peter kisses the top of his head making Sam give a happy wiggle. Peter smiles at the action. “You like when I do that?”

A shy, “Mhm,” is his response.

A yawn breaking up his words, “well, then I’ll make a point to do it more often.”

“As opposed to the never?” Sam pulls back to see Peter's face as they spoke to one another.

“Hey, I just found out you feel the same way an hour ago. Give me at least a day to catch up.”

Sam tilts his head as best he can while laying on his side. “Catch up?” 

“Just because-” Peter kisses Sams forehead “-I only started-” then his temple “-giving you-” his cheek “-kisses-” nose “-today-” other cheek “-doesn’t mean-” other temple “-I haven’t wanted to-” and his lips before tilting his chin to look in his eyes “-from the moment I saw your beautiful face.”

And right at that moment Sam’s cold decided to flare up. He was able to turn his face last minute to avoid spraying mucus in Peter’s face. Peter rolled on to his back cackling and clapping to himself at the juxtaposition with excellent comedic timing. Sam rolled over to grab a tissue. “Shut the fuck up.”

“That was perfect!” Peter laughed out.

Sam lay back down and snuggled into the taller hero. “Shut up and go to sleep.” 

Peter lay another kiss to Sam’s forehead getting a little laughs as they met eyes again. They lay gazes locked for a moment. The two closed the gap softly, relishing in the still new sensation of each other’s lips. Smiling tired and a bit dopey, Nova wiggled again into Peters arms as they both drifted off.

Chapter Text

White Tiger stretched her arms over her head and across her chest, Iron fist and Power Man following behind while she loosened up for whatever the day might hold. As she passed by the other personal quarters to get an early start to training she stopped when Sam’s door opened. She caught Peter’s eyes, surprised as he shut the door as quietly as possible. The last time Peter slept in Sam’s room… “Did Sam have another delirium fit? I thought he was doing better.”

“No, no, we just had a good talk.” Danny raised a brow at the vague words urging Peter to elaborate. “Well we um..-” Peter’s hands floated uncoordinated in front of him as he tried to find the right words “-confessed to each other… h-how we felt.”

“How you felt?” Luke raised one brow before they settled, “Oh” and shot up in realization of what was going on between his teammates, “OH.” 

“You’re just noticing now?” Ava crossed her arms turning to Luke.

“You knew?” He countered, still in shock.

“It was rather obvious,” Danny added.

“Not to me.” Peter pursed his lips to the side.

“ Thank you,” Luke said before seeing Peter’s judgemental look. “Oh well-” The four just fell into light laughter.

Peter’s chuckling was cut off as two sleeves wrapped around his torso. The ends flopped down hiding any hands. His spidey sense warns him of danger, not harmless surprise so he jumped a little at the hug. “Buckethead, why are you up?”

“Yer loud,” Sam uttered still pressed into Peter’s back.

Spidey turned around in the hold to return the embrace. Peter gave a crooked smile into the hood pulled over Sam’s head and whispered, “sorry.” Nova just gave a ‘mmph’ and nuzzled Peter’s chest. The sleeves were too long and it hung to his thighs. It fit mostly well -Peter wasn’t bigger, just taller- so Sam looked absolutely precious wearing-

“Peter, is that your hoodie?” Ava prompted, amused.

Sam tilted his head down to expose his mouth so he could be heard as he laughed out, “not anymore!” His voice was scratchy from first waking up and still being sick. Peter gaped at him in pretend shock before hugging the smaller hero close and rubbing the side of his head over the hood as his laughter broke into a rough coughing fit. When it finally died down Sam curled back into Peter’s hold.

“C’mon, back to bed with you.” Sam gave an unhelpful ‘mmm!’ and clutched at Peter's shirt. Peter laughed gently, “what?” Sam just pulled him closer and nuzzled into his chest again. Peter huffed a laugh before resting his chin on Sam’s head. “You’re lucky it’s a weekend.”

“We still ha-” Peter cut Ava off with a joking ‘shhhh’ and finger to his lips making Sam giggle , an honest to gods giggle. From Sam . From that Peter makes a deduction: Early-morning-sleepy Sam is the epitome of adorable.

“Your funeral,” Ava says and begins to lead the others down the hall.

“Hey, Connors will back me up. As your leader it is pertinent that I ensure all of your well beings. And I shouldn’t train until I know all of you are at 100%.” Peter hugs Sam tighter to accentuate his speech. The other’s turned when Peter started speaking, giving them a good view of Sam’s bubbly smile at the action.

“He does have a point,” Danny said to Ava.

“Ugh, just-” She points at the hugging boys with slightly squinted eyes as she finds her words. She fully squints and says, “be responsible.” 

Sam turns his face to Peter's chest to hide any blush that may have crept into his cheeks. Peter just gives the girl a deadpan expression and states, “He’s sick, Ava.” Sam punctuating the argument by sniffling drawing a laugh from Luke and Danny. Ava rolls her eyes but doesn't hide her smile as she pulls the other active heroes to the training room. 

Peter walks Sam back into the dark room, he reaches out to help pull off his hoodie from Sam but the boy just makes a grumpy noise and hugs himself with a little pout to keep the article of clothing on his torso.

“You don’t think you’re gonna overheat?”

Sam pauses at the statement before pulling it over his head. He holds the soft fabric to his chest and face before going to lay down with it, before realizing that the actual Peter Parker was right there with him. He tossed the thick fabric onto the floor and grabs Peter's left arm with his own. Rolling to his right, Sam pulled the other boy against his back with his arm now snug around Sam's waist. Peter chuckled before kissing the back of Sam's head. He nuzzles in close before saying in a soft voice, “Song lyrics are helpful and all but I haven’t actually said it so, Sam I really like you.”

“I really like you too, Pete.”